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Using AI to write better code more slowly

nolanlawson.com

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Re: Using AI to write better code more slowly

#151

We may be in the last Golden age of AI, where experienced professionals still exist who can code manually, and AI already exists who can code automatically, and when the former use the latter skillfully, wonders happen. This magical intersection may not exist iin the future, or become very rare.

I think as long as it continues to be tangibly better these people will still exist and the intersection will continue to be valuable enough to survive.

Re: Using AI to write better code more slowly

#152
> But the thing is, LLMs are very flexible. And you can use them just as effectively to write high-quality code more slowly.

There is a reason it is called slop. On first sight it is often not noticeable but when you dig deeper, you realise that it is often spam-slop. Of course this can be improved upon, but often there is no real improvement and you waste your own time in hope that things get better. Which high quality projects exist that are AI slop generated? Can people name something that is used by many people? The linux kernel? Something in that range? Including documentation? To me it seems people are chasing a dream here: skynet should write the code and they can sit on the beach, enjoying sunshine and fruits.

Re: Using AI to write better code more slowly

#153

I've hit this point with AI where it's not a simple process, but a long drawn out back and forth. I'll use AI to design the implementation of a medium sized, cross cutting feature. Review all the details, maybe iterate on just that. Then implement with Claude 4.7 Max - which runs slower, but does a better job. Then review the implementation, then have Codex GPT 5.5 xhigh fast review it - which almost always finds cor…

At this point one might as well code by themselves

Unfortunately the projects are still too big. Projects with hundreds of thousands to millions of lines of code can't be maintained by a single person reviewing all the the changes. And AI only increases the speed of iteration and the amount of code to review.

We may need some sort of paradigm shift - like more powerful frameworks or even higher level languages that allow us to review less, but more functional code blocks.

Re: Using AI to write better code more slowly

#154

“A lot of people seem convinced that the point of AI coding is to write low-quality code as fast as possible.” A lot of people think a lot of things, but I don’t think the majority of people think the point of using LLMs is so they can produce low-quality code. Do they produce low-quality code sometimes or often? Of course. But they also produce high-quality code very often. And sometimes they just a “fine” job. One…

Hopefully not, but there was recent thread with multiple posters arguing that code quality doesn't matter, and quality produced by humans in the past was often terrible. So who cares, ship it was the sentiment. Let the AIs handle the growing maintenance cost, I guess? Kind of a shocking thing to see argued on HN. Maybe it's just the vibe coders.

The vast majority of corporate-employed programmers write bad code. I think maybe 10% of the people I’ve come across have shown any interest or care in the quality of code they write.

There will be a large majority of people who hold these opinions, because they weren’t capable of or didn’t care enough to write good code in the before times

Re: Using AI to write better code more slowly

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would never imagine this is where programming would be five years ago, but at the end of day having the AI write the code is easier, faster, and results in higher quality. The mental model is still in my head, my brain is overloaded, but only from the amount of code reviews - like I said, I'm building v3 of a feature in the time it takes to build v1, but I am in a way doing 3x the code reviews going back and forth.…

You're not on v3 lol. You're on v1 that you had to redo three times. If the feature isn't released, it's not a new version.

Semantics. In reality yes it is the v3 version equivelent in terms of maturity and iteration. I know because I've been doing this for a long time. We are getting to v3 and beyond faster than ever before.

In the new world there is no time to put out v1 quality code and it is borderline reckless given how easily things are getting hacked now. You need to be putting out heavily reviewed code that covers all the corner cases on the first release.

Re: Using AI to write better code more slowly

#156
post #19

I've hit this point with AI where it's not a simple process, but a long drawn out back and forth. I'll use AI to design the implementation of a medium sized, cross cutting feature. Review all the details, maybe iterate on just that. Then implement with Claude 4.7 Max - which runs slower, but does a better job. Then review the implementation, then have Codex GPT 5.5 xhigh fast review it - which almost always finds cor…

yes exactly. Too many people ask AI to one-shot complex tasks, and wonder it behaves like a junior asked to rush something. I have my own skill: 5 rounds of research/planning/test-planning. Interactive with me in loop for all important decisions. Starts with high level shape, then details. Planning can take 2-3 days of my time, then the implementation agent can take many hours (Opus 4.7). It splits the implementation…

[dead]

Re: Using AI to write better code more slowly

#157

We may be in the last Golden age of AI, where experienced professionals still exist who can code manually, and AI already exists who can code automatically, and when the former use the latter skillfully, wonders happen. This magical intersection may not exist iin the future, or become very rare.

people said the same with any innovation

Re: Using AI to write better code more slowly

#158
post #30

This article doesn't address writing code with AI, just code review. My issue with agentic coding is that I make numerous micro-architectural decisions while programming. I almost never have a full spec up front and develop one as I consider what I am writing. When using Claude Code or Codex, that is all gone. Claude Code is extremely eager to reach the end goal to the point that it feels like a fever dream to write…

> I fear that workflow is just chat, search, and being a rubber duck for my thoughts

This is exactly what I settled upon after my own trying really hard. It is liberating, I have no fear at all!

Re: Using AI to write better code more slowly

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing wrong at all. Some features you can bolt on, and some features fundamentally change how a system works requiring changes at many different levels of the stack. Happens all the time.

It happens in poorly factored codebases. If you find it happening that's a sign you need to refactor. If you find it happening repeatedly in the same codebase that means you failed to refactor properly the first time.

Refactoring is the natural evolution of a growing application. Refactoring too soon, too fast is what we call over engineering. Too little refactoring and your code becomes spaghetti slop. Regardless - the application will change across all layers across its lifetime.
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